What are they Smoking: 1986 Cadillac Cimarron

It was the 1980s. Michael Jackson was black, Chevy Chase was funny, and Cadillacs were for old people. Then came the yuppies, and they wanted 3-series BMWs, Mercedes 190s, Saab 900s, and other small, sporty sedans – and they were willing to pay lots of money for them. Not wanting to be left behind, in 1983 Cadillac decided to get into the game with the Chevy Cavailer-based Cimarron. Fast Forward 28 years to the present, and there is a guy offering this 1986 Cimarron on eBay as a collector item with a Buy it Now price of just $24,900.

Now it’s important to note that the Cavalier was not a fantastic car, but it handled well enough. It was still a J-car through and though, and represented 1980s-era badge engineering at its best. From the side, it is nearly impossible to distinguish one J-car from another (Skyhawk, Firenza, J2000, etc.) because, contrary to more modern cars sharing platforms, the General didn’t even bother to alter door profiles or body contours on these babies. The Cimarron, though, did have tweaked suspension and the larger 2.8 liter V6 that saw duty in cars like the Pontiac 6000STE (2nd reference to that car on this site in the last 24 hours – frightening!), making it marginally more fun to drive than lesser versions.

A friend of mine from high school actually had 2 of these. At different times. In fact, he even rolled one of them, and lived to tell the story – although if memory serves he was going about 6 miles per hour at the time…

While the Cimarron was conceived as a stopgap to the ever-increasing shift of sales from domestic manufacturers to imports – and it certainly didn’t stop that flow – it also helped to set the stage for such future more youth-oriented (youth=less than 40) models like the Catera, the STS, and more recently the CTS – which is actually a unique and interesting car.

So that brings us to this car. It is clearly two distinct shades of gold, has 60,000 miles (about 75% of the life expectancy of the typical J-car), and looks a little worse for the wear. But it does come with the gold keys. Perhaps those are solid gold – which at today’s prices may help justify the price. Collectors may elect to wait for the next Cadillac deal to come along for investment purposes, but that’s just me…